Photos of a Schalke Fan’s Trip to Leverkusen

8 Comments

1. 

   diana

   November 18, 2008 at 10:12 am

   But now Stuttgart is in, what I call, mid-table mediocrity. At the bottom half of the table. Oh well. I'm was like thinking the other day that if this continues, might as well forget about contesting for European places.

   'I think the Bundesliga suffers from a lack of good PR.'
   I thought so too. Sure it's nice now there's Bundesliga on our TV here, but I noticed sop far that when it comes to Bundesliga coverage in the papers, it's very little. Sometimes I don't even want to read The Straits Times's sports section. I read the TODAY paper more often. At least when it comes to international matches, they do have reports apart from what is happening with the England squad. Sometimes I wonder if the papers here have always want to give us the impression the EPL is tops (not that I am arguing given I grew up with the EPL) and all the other major leagues in Italy, Spain, Germany comes after that.

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2. 

   Hikaru

   November 18, 2008 at 10:00 am

   *whistles* that's a hell lot more than what we used to get. It used to be all EPL, and some La Liga and Serie A but no Bundesliga at all. That's a distinct improvement. And now there's the occasional J-league. (I can see my FC Tokyo once in a while!) Brilliant.

   I've heard about the CL rights being sold to mioTV. Needless to say I'm not pleased. Seeing that I bother watching only United's CL matches and I'm not the biggest fan of Serie A, I think I'll skip for the moment. I'm sure I can get the matches I want on a stream. Fans will benefit from competition, my a**** =_=

   I've been randomly following the Bundesliga since I got into Leverkusen but the lack of info in English was an impediment. For me, it was Ollie Kahn and WC 2002. It's better now (granted, I'm putting in more effort too) since WC2006 definitely my interest definitely increased. And yes, Stuttgart had an excellent season after the WC.

   I think the Bundesliga suffers from a lack of good PR. It's an entertaining league but people tend to cling to their old images of the efficient German national team so it's a bit of a hard sell. But at least now they're showing the matches so hopefully things will change.

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3. 

   diana

   November 18, 2008 at 7:12 am

   Forgot to add. Actually I have no idea if this is the first time the Bundesliga is on TV here, Hikaru. But then since after the 2006 World Cup, I had been following the Bundesliga through the Internet. During those times, there are times I actually asked on my own blog that is there any chance in the future there will be the Bundesliga on TV.

   So when I was reading the August issue of Telescope (StarHub digital cable's monthly magazine) back in late July and when I was reading the highlights in its sports section, it talked about the Bundesliga and the number of matches to be shown (four for each matchday). I became like a fangirl at once. Screaming, yelling, shrieking (for five minutes, and thank goodness the neighbours never knocked the door and asked what was going on!) that it's finally happening.

   Even all the more the opening day of the new season is on August 15. That is actually also the day of my birthday. Quite a birthday 'present', I can say.

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4. 

   diana

   November 18, 2008 at 4:15 am

   Yup. The EPL, Spain's La Liga, Japan's J League as well. Most of those matches (except for the J League where there's only a match to be shown on each matchday, apart from a weekly highlights programme) are on the Football Channel (it's channel 27 on StarHub).

   There are times other matches are being shown on SuperSports (channel 22) and occasionally SuperSports Plus (channel 21). The Football Channel do show international matches as well, like the World Cup qualifiers, international friendlies. Just take the upcoming Germany-England friendly for example. It will be on the Football Channel. Usually ESPN or StarSports will show England matches but now it's not all the time. I think it has to do with the TV rights, I don't know.

   I am not sure how many matches for each matchday StarHub got for La Liga but for the Bundesliga, they always have the Friday action live, delayed telecast for Saturday's action (it's always two for Saturday action) and at times live or delayed telecast of the Sunday's action being shown live (one Sunday match each time). There's also the Bundesliga preview show (shown on Thursdays) call 'GOAL!' and a weekly highlights programme of the matches being played. The weekly highlights programme are shown at various times throughout the week, so it's up to you on when it's the best time for you to catch up on all the Bundesliga action. Given we get four matches for each Bundesliga matchday each time.

   Recently, SingTel announced they got the rights to Italy's Serie A on their mioTV. You have to pay a different price to subscribe to the mioTV service. SingTel also won the rights to broadcast Champions League matches starting the following season on mioTV. The price to subscribe is getting expensive, unless you don't want to watch Champions League matches. This season will be the last time the ESPN and StarSports networks will be showing on their channels. Until the next bidding round comes around (in a few years' time, I think), then we will wait and see.

   See that you are Leverkusen fan from your blog. For me, it's Stuttgart. 😉

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5. 

   Hikaru

   November 18, 2008 at 12:10 am

   Hello! I hope you don't mind my butting in but what exactly is being offered in SG now with regards to football? I need to prepare myself mentally for when I get back home ^^ Is Starhub now offering Bundesliga matches on top of the other leagues?

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6. 

   Mark

   November 17, 2008 at 9:34 pm

   You're quite welcome. Just know that we expect some insightful commentary on all our Leverkusen stories from you from now on 😉

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7. 

   Hikaru

   November 17, 2008 at 6:38 pm

   Oh wow. Great pictures. Thank you very much.

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8. 

   diana

   November 15, 2008 at 10:27 pm

   Great photos! Thanks for the link, Mark.

   Coincidentally, almost an hour or so ago, I was actually still watching the match on TV. 😛

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